The Lucky Find
by Trance-Gemmy
Summary: Sequal to The Lucky Meeting, about how Trance, Harper, Beka, Rev and Gerentex find the Andromeda. A bit of Trance and Harper friendship. You really have to read The lucky Meeting to understand.


Trance entered harpers quarters. Harper was sitting on his bed, reading a book on engineering, but his eyes swiftly left the pages of the book when he noticed that trance was in nothing but her underwear. Her hair was dripping with water, and she had obviously just got out of the shower. His mouth almost hit the floor. Trance, who had not yet made eye contact with him, was casually searching around for a towel; it was almost as if Harper was not in the room at all. Harper just sat there staring, his eyes following her as she searched around the room. He was particularly interested in her pants, in which a hole was cut in order to let her purple tail through. Trance stopped for a second, her face confused, and peering over to Harper she noticed that he was staring at her. She scratched her head and raised an eyebrow.

"Harper? Have you seen any towels?" she asked. Harper snapped himself out of his trance. His face began to glow red with embarrassment, and he quickly turned his head away from trance and started talking towards the wall.  
"I err... um... i was just... i wasn't looking at your body... honest... not that you have an ugly body or anything... but... err... let me just err" he said. Trance laughed.

"Harper... Come on. Whats wrong with me showing off my skin. We all have bodies. Why should we be embarrassed about seeing each other unclothed?" She said softly, with a smile. Harper thought about it for a second, raising an eyebrow. At first, the thought of trance spending all of her time walking around in nothing but underwear did not seem all that bad. But he swiftly knocked the fantasy out of his head and realised that in this situation he needed to act responsibly.

"Get some clothes on. I cant even look at you when im talking to ya!" He made himself say, against his own will.

"Why harp? Do you feel embarrassed?" She asked puzzled.

"Well yeah, Of course!" Harper replied.

"Why? Why should you feel embarrassed. Surly i should be the one who is embarrassed..." She said.

"Trance, I've only known you for 2 days! I'm practically a stranger!" Harper said.

"Why? Don't you like to see me like this?" Trance interrupted, but was quickly cut-off by Harper.

"No trance!" he cried in an increasingly annoyed-sounding tone. When he realised that he was started to raise his voice to her, he quickly calmed down "Trance. Its just not... right to walk around in front of people... like that". Trance didn't quite understand the reasons behind this, but she decided there was no point in argueing with him. She proceeded to take one of the bed-sheets from harpers bed and wrapped it around herself.

"Now don't you do that again" Harper said, waving his finger like a strict teacher "Its a very un-human thing to do. Beka and Rev wont appreciate you strolling around the Maru's cockpit almost naked!" he finished. Trance sighed.

"Yes father" she said sarcastically, and left the room to get some clothes on.

"Geez. I never thought id tell a hot girl in nothing but underwear to put some clothes on whilst in my room. In fact i never thought id have a hot girl in nothing but underwear in my room at all" Harper said to himself when he was sure she had left the room.

Harper still wasn't sure about Trance, to him she seemed pretty friendly but then again she did stab him in the back just a few days prior. His opinion on her was divided, on one side he had the gorgeous alien babe with an seemingly great personality but on the other he had an extremely mysterious thief who didn't seem to have any past. As much as he wanted to trust her as Beka and Rev did, he couldn't.

Trance entered Harpers room. To Harpers relief (and maybe a little disappointment) she was fully dressed in blue hot pants and a matching top. She preceded to take a seat next to Harper. She turned towards him with a smile but noticed that he was staring at the floor. She started to fumble her fingers, it was one of those awful silences. Both of them proceeded to break the silence,

"So…" They both said at exactly the same time. Both of them gave a small laugh before Harper said,

"You go first."

"So…err…you grew up on Earth?"

"Umm yeah, I'm 100 human, not one of those space born suckers like Beka"

"Sucker? Beka's a sucker? I thought you liked her." Trance looked confused. Harper laughed,

"It's a figure of speech Trance, a human thing."

"Oh…I guess im gonna learn a lot of human things while im on board the Maru."

"Yeah, I guess you are." Harper said simply, Trance realised that Harper wasn't really in the mood for a conversation about Earth with her, or with her at all.

"You don't like me, do you?" Trance asked, Harper didn't reply, after that Trance stood up and left the excuse of a room.

"I just need to know I can trust you." Harper whispered to himself after she was out of ear shot.

Rev the wayist entered Harpers room, Harper thought that he would never get a moments peace with everyone coming in and out of his room. He smiled at the hairy reverend

"I know what troubles you young Harper." Rev said after the door shut behind him,

"Oh yeah? I s'pose you're here to council me" Harper replied.

"Well if you don't want me too, then ill gladly leave" the maggog said as he turned towards the door.

"No!" Harper cried after him "No… stay rev. I wouldn't have it any other way"

"Your cousin Brendan, it is his birthday, is it not?" Rev asked, sitting next to Harper on the bed. Harper smiled,

"Yeah, well I was hoping to go visit him, ya know back on Earth."

"It is most unfortunate that we can not leave to travel to Earth, for we have a new employee to attend to. I am sure seeing your family would do you some good."

"Yeah, I guess."

"And would I be correct in assuming that our purple friend is bothering you somehow?"

"You're a mind reader Rev."

"I am not to understand why you have placed mis-trust in her, for she seems quite trustworthy to me."

"Cuteness and cunning is a deadly combination" Harper whispered.

"We have no evidence to suggest that she is cunning."

"I do, it begins with matter and ends with lenses."

"It will take about 16 more slip jumps to the outer cluster of this system." Beka said to a scruffy looking Gerentex as they discussed their deal over a glass of whiskey.

"Your cheating me aren't you?" Gerentex said "there is less than 16 jumps, its just that your stretching out the journey in order to claim more of MY cash. What was the deal again, I pay you per slip jump?"

"Look, rat face, you can either take my piloting skills or leave them. But taking them costs money. So shall we make the 16 jumps or shall I shove your hairy butt up into your cargo pod and eject you into space with no engine?" Beka threatened.

"I think ill just pay the sum…what was it? 10 000 thrones per jump?"

"Deal." Beka shook hands with the nightsider before climbing into her pilot seat and strapping herself in.

Beka slowly removed the leather jacket she was wearing, it was beginning to become boiling,

"TRANCE" She shouted, whipping the sweat of her forehead.

"Yeah…" Trance replied,

"Turn the heating systems down…a lot. Please… its kind hot up here." Beka fanned herself with her hand.

"Ok Beka." Trance smiled as she approached the heating controls for the Maru. She thought back to a few days earlier when Harper had shown her what the purpose of the many buttons was.

"I think…its…yeah, you turn this knob…right…" She said to herself as she did so, unfortunately she turned it to far, the rooms temperature began to rapidly increase. She quickly tried to turn the knob the opposite direction, while doing so she accidentally snapped the knob off.

"Whoops…" She muttered, she quickly tried to force the knob back onto the control pad. As she fumbled with the broken control pad, she soon realised that all of her forcing and fiddling had caused the temperature control to jam.

"Umm…guys, sorry…a little help Harper." She cried. Harper came bolting in, his jacket tied around his waist.

"Oh no…we gotta shut down the entire thermostat system." Harper then shouted to his boss,

"BEKA WRAP UP WARM, ITS GONNA GET REAL COLD, AND REAL FAST!" Harper cried, Trance looked very guilty,

"Im sorry, Im really sorry. Sorry!" Trance was muttering to Harper. He pushed her aside as he began to shut down the temperature systems. The ships temperature began to rapidly decline, Beka and Gerentex could feel the air getting colder by the second.

"I pay thousands of thrones and don't even get warm accommodation" Gerentex complained. Beka turned to him.

"Look, look this isn't a five star hotel on cuppie drift. Live with the cold, or don't live at all" She threatened. She loved playing the bad-ass.

"Im sorry, I truly am sorry. Really. I am Sorry." Trance moaned. Beka, who was sitting at the marus table, wrapped in layers of clothing, sighed.

"Trance. You're an Environmental Systems officer, and yet you cant even control the temperature of the environment." Beka replied.

"Im great with plants" Trance replied, looking at the floor.

"Trance, There's more to being an E.S officer than plants. If you like plants why not be a gardener?" Beka replied. Trance knew that Beka had doubts about her abilities.

"Im sorry, I will be more careful next time. I promise Beka" she said, batting her eyelids.

"Well trance, since your new, I will give you another chance. I suppose it's partly my fault for not giving you a proper tour of the ships environmental systems. However don't screw up on me again, Gerentex is hardly going to recommend me to his friends if he can't even get a warm room is he. Remember, salvaging is a business."

Trances face lit up.

"Beka, I love you! Thank you for letting me stay! I promise I won't screw up again!" Trance gave a giggling Beka a hug. Beka shouted through to Harper.

"Harper? How's those repairs going"

"Well boss" Harper shouted back "If I don't freeze in the process, I should have her fixed in a few minutes". He entered the dining area.

"Just leaving the ES systems to reboot, when there done the temperature should go back to normal" Harper told Beka and Trance. He noticed that trance was not wrapped in warm clothes.

"Trance?" he started "It must be minus 10 in here, aren't you freezing?" At least she wasn't in her underwear.

"Yeah, Im in 6 layers of thermo blankets here" Beka said.  
"Well, the cold is not much of a problem for me" trance replied "My people can regulate body temperature at will". Harper raised an eyebrow.

"Really? Now that would be handy" he said "So, err, what species are you trance?" Trance felt her stomach sink. She quickly tried to change the subject.

"Well im a… never mind about that! Let's talk about other things, such as, you know, things"

"Where are you from trance?" Harper asked. She didn't answer. Rev came strolling in.

"What ever trance is, she is truly a magnificent being" Rev said "I have never met a species quite like hers". Trance felt kind of embarresed.

"Im just a small-planet purple girl with a boring past. There's not much to talk about, and there's not much to say. Let's talk about Beka. So Beka, have you been on the Maru all of your life?" Trance said. Harper felt kind of suspicious, why was trance being so secretive? What was she trying to hide from them? He decided that now was neither the time nor the place to try to get answers, and proceeded to return to repairing ES systems. However, He was now even more wary of Trance, and trusted her even less than before.


End file.
